For Good
by Christina B
Summary: Spoilers for End of Time! Right before Ten regenerates, he reflects on his life, and the people he's shared it with. Songfic


AN: This is something I wanted to write right after I saw End of Time Part 2, but I was too bummed to write it until today. This basically Ten's reflections on the friends he had, and the life he's led right before he regenerates. I hope you guys like it, as this is my very first Who fic! Btw, I did make a video using the same song as a tribute to Ten, if anyone is interested here it is: youtube dot com slash watch?v=9YV7UOS99bg

Disclaimer: I don't own the Tenth Doctor played by the amazing David Tennant, nor do I own the song For Good from the musical Wicked.

**For Good**

_I've heard it said  
That people come into our lives for a reason  
Bringing something we must learn  
And we are led  
To those who help us most to grow  
If we let them  
And we help them in return  
Well, I don't know if I believe that's true  
But I know I'm who I am today  
Because I knew you_

The time had come, of that the Doctor was sure. His body was failing, the effects of the radiation poisoning permanent and fatal. If he wasn't a Time Lord, then he would surely have succumbed by now. The walk from the snowy London street to the inside of the TARDIS was excruciating it, and only the Ood song was able to give him the relief to make it inside the police box. And it took every ounce of strength he had left to set the TARDIS controls. After that all he could do was stand there and wait for the inevitable.

This particular incarnation had to be one of his favorites, and the Doctor was truly going to miss so much when he changed. When he was in his ninth incarnation, he'd enjoyed himself of course, but he was angrily, and still so freshly hurt by being the one to destroy his beloved home world Gallifrey. He was so angry, so reckless in those days that the Doctor didn't really know what would've happened to him had he not met Rose.

In many ways Rose brought him back to life, changed him from the broken shell he was, into someone who truly wanted to live again. She gave him such a precious gift, that the Doctor couldn't help but fall in love with her. When she was being consumed by the time vortex in her head, he didn't think twice about saving her, ensuring his own death in the process. His ninth life was very much scarred, but when he regenerated, the Doctor liked to think he had changed into someone much better.

_Like a comet pulled from orbit  
As it passes a sun  
Like a stream that meets a boulder  
Halfway through the wood  
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?  
But because I knew you  
I have been changed for good_

After his parting from Rose, the Doctor wasn't really quite sure how he would move forward, but he did and meeting Martha Jones was an encounter he would never forget. He truly considered her a good friend, and despite the fact she fancied him, the Doctor was still glad to have her there. She eased the loneliness he felt since Rose was left on that parallel world, and had it not been for Martha, the world might still be subjected to the Master's whims.

The Doctor remembered the day she left the TARDIS, how sad he'd felt. Loosing friends was always so difficult, especially when he would always outlive them. Being a Time Lord was a lonely existence, being the last was even worse. Martha had been changed forever upon her departure; she was now committed to protecting planet Earth. A perfect soldier, and though she didn't regret it, the Doctor surely did.

_It well may be  
That we will never meet again  
In this lifetime  
So let me say before we part  
So much of me  
Is made of what I learned from you  
You'll be with me  
Like a handprint on my heart  
And now whatever way our stories end  
I know you have re-written mine  
By being my friend..._

And then there was Donna, his best friend who once saved the entire universe, and couldn't even remember it. The thing he always loved about Donna was that for one she was never impressed by the Doctor, at least in the beginning. She was his best friend, nothing more than that, and the Doctor was grateful to have known her. She always challenged him, and though they argued at times, the Doctor knew that she cared more than she would ever let on.

When he'd been forced to wipe her memory of the DoctorDonna, it had been torture. She never wanted to go, yet she had no choice in the matter. Her Time Lord mind was perilous, and there really wasn't a choice. He had to make her forget, and the Doctor never really intended to see her again. And he would've succeeded if it weren't for Wilf.

Donna's grandfather was a wonderful old man, who the Doctor could sympathize with, being old himself. The Doctor vividly remembered that horrible moment when he realized the "he will knock four times" prophecy wasn't the Master after all, but it was Wilfred. The Doctor never would've been able to live with himself had he left Wilf to die, so he sacrificed himself for the friend who doomed him.

But the Doctor didn't regret it. Wilfred would live happily for the rest of his life as would Donna when she realized that the dollar lottery ticket he'd given her, was the winning ticket. She would never have to temp again.

_Like a ship blown from its mooring  
By a wind off the sea  
Like a seed dropped by a skybird  
In a distant wood  
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?  
But because I knew you_

_I have been changed for good_

He'd done so much in this life, saving the Earth multiple times, meeting Madame dePompadour, Shakespeare, and Agatha Christie, fighting Daleks and Cybermen, becoming a human and falling in love, meeting his daughter, and dooming Pompeii. Of disaster bus trips, killer libraries and television, and he couldn't forget the time he met his fifth incarnation. This life was full of so very much….And yet as he said to Wilf earlier _he could've done so much more_.

As the Doctor saw the regeneration energy showing on his hand, he knew the time was coming and despite everything, he was going to change. But he couldn't help himself, the Doctor didn't want this. He was going to miss his friends, his family, but they would move on without him, as he was forced to do the same.

"I don't want to go," he said to no one in particular, right before the regeneration consumed him.

_  
I do believe I have been  
Changed for the better  
Because I knew you...  
I have been changed for good._


End file.
